Someone said that I am rude (not the first time, of course). Thing is, I am rude in general. But NOT on the specific case. But people always have prejudice against others and they over-read comments in the future if they have caught you once to actually be rude.

But despite that, I won’t stop being who I am and always second-thinking every move of mine just so I make sure I don’t get misunderstood again in the future. That would just not be honest. And if I am one thing for sure, that’s “honest” (no, not “self-righteous bitch”).

My “straight-forwardness” and “to the point” comments towards others often puts me in trouble, but I believe this is my best quality. If you look like a stuffed potato in your new dress, be assured that I will be the one to point it out to you point blank, and I’d do that exactly because I care. Would it “suck the fun out” of it? It probably would. But at least you get one person who’s not afraid to be honest with you and not laugh behind your back.

A few months ago I was a bit unsatisfied with my life. I felt angry and sad most of the time. I thought I was just in mid-life crisis. But things are good now. For the last 2 months things are improving from good to best.

And then it hit me why: JBQ used to be unhappy and overworked while at Openwave, while this is not so anymore over at Google. He just has more time for me now, he is less aggravated, and more loving. I feel that JBQ is happier than ever at Google, less stressed, more optimistic. And this has had a very positive impact in our relationship.

Update: JBQ blogged about it too.

I have enough archived HD footage of the San Francisco zoo tiger that this past week got out of its cage, killed a teenager and hurt two more people. Some of you might have seen parts of that footage on my zoo video.

Tonight I got a message by a fellow videographer telling me that I should try and sell my footage to the news TV channels. I replied that this would be a bad idea, and he replied “why? why is this bad?”. And this is what I replied back to him:

“It is inappropriate because it’s an exploitation of the current unfortunate situation. IF I had been selling that footage for months before the accident happened, that would have been ok. But selling it now, after and because of the accident, that’s greedy and it shows a low quality person.”

I hope more people think about their personal ethics before they do the things they do. In the specific situation everyone lost: the tiger got shot, the kid died, two more visitors got hurt, the zoo was closed for days. Everyone lost. And then, here I would be, the smart-ass prick, selling footage and be the only one who gains something from it. Sorry, but no sir. I like my conscience to be clear as day. If shooting and selling footage was my job, I would have pursued a sale, but not under the current conditions.

Update: It’s amazing that there are such low IQ people in the world. Now the guy calls me a hypocrite, because my Vimeo Zoo video uses footage from that tiger. No matter that this video was put together MONTHS before the incident and so it has nothing to do with the ethical dilemma I posed… That guy is so unbelievable! He is either 10 years old, or someone with an IQ below 80. “He will pray for me”, he said… What a fucking joke.

Cogratulations to my little brother and his wife in Greece for becoming parents of their first child, a 3.3kg daughter. My parents are grandparents for the first time, and very happy too. This was the first time i wish the iphone had mms support so my brother could send me a pic of the baby right away.

Two days ago it was my mother’s name day, the St Barbara day, which is celebrated by many Christian churches. I called her to wish her for the day, as ‘name days’ in the Greek culture are more important than birthdays.

I think I’ve never heard my mother being so happy. She was blurbing, she was making jokes, her voice was dancing left and right. And it wasn’t because of the name day, no. It was because she’s close to freedom. A freedom that she didn’t enjoy for 35 years now. Close to life itself.

My parents filed for divorce last month. Hopefully, the divorce will get finalized this coming May.

I am happy for both of them, and I only wish it had happened much, much sooner.

I read the Obama page on Wikipedia and towards the end there were remarks as to if he’s “black enough” and the “National Association of Black Journalists”. What whole of crap that is? I mean, does it really matter if he’s black, white or green? And what’s the deal with the “National Association of Black Journalists”? Why is there even a need for this to exist? If there was a “National Association of White Journalists”, the African Americans would be crying foul! To me, all people are one and the same. And as Quark from Star Trek put it, “all humans look the same to me”.

This doesn’t mean that I don’t have my own racist-like (or should I say, elitist) peeves that I am trying to get over with. But thankfully, these problems don’t have to do with people. They have to do with technology. About a month ago I became a moderator at two of Vimeo’s HD channels. The idea is that you pick HD videos published there and you group them under one roof, so visitors can easily find HD-only videos at one place.

When I told JBQ about this he became enraged. He started preaching that “art” should not be categorized by technical meanings like resolution or camera model, but purely on its artistic value. He absolutely hated the idea of having a channel that only posts HD videos that are only made with the HV20. I tried to explain to him that the HV20 is ultra-popular and people do want to see HD videos made from this camera in particular. There is a lot of interest for this. But he wouldn’t take it. He found the whole idea of “categorizing art” with technical meanings repulsive.

A month later I am still torn about this, which is one of the reasons I got the cheap ZR800 camcorder. I wanted to prove to myself that even with the cheapest miniDV camera on the market today you can get a good result out of it. Wasn’t as good, but was good enough.

“Instead of personal computers being able to run any program from any source without approval from a third party–which many of us were used to in the 1980s and 1990s–Zittrain fears we’re entering a world where centralized approval becomes necessary“, says News.com.

Well, I am sorry to say, but things are not black and white. Yes, the Internet and the computer experience will become a policed place, but on the other hand, situations required it to become one. Cyber-terrorism is only going to get worse as more and more people are investing their data on internet-based firms. This is the exact same problem Steve Jobs faced when he started working on the iPhone. I am sure that from one side he would have wanted native apps from day 1, but on the other hand, by starting this new product he had the opportunity of make it immaculate and secure too. Of course, security works both ways. In some cases such decisions are made so the consumer is more secure, and in others so the firm is more secure — which can be something that’s against the consumer.

Regardless, that’s where the world is going, both in and out of the internet, and there is nothing you can do to stop it. If you believe that democracy will help you here, think again. Can’t wait until they will RFID all of us just so we can get a job. I said it before and I will have to say it again: I don’t believe in guerrilla fighting. I don’t go write to my congressman or hit the streets to protest to “make the world a better place”, because this won’t do a thing. Instead, I buy two cows, three sheep and two goats, and I am going to live on a mountain, at a country that’s still free. I prefer to re-settle rather than live under a totalitarian rule.

We spent Thanksgiving at the Village of Squaw, home of the Winter Olympics of 1960. We booked an apartment there for 4 days and we had a great time — minus the fact that there was not much snow so my JBQ could not ski. I love these small apartments as they are fully equipped, so I can cook there. We didn’t hike as the weather was very cold (-12C to -4C), so we stayed in for the most part and… watched lots of TV.

Nonetheless, I did find the time to shoot 40 minutes of video, which translated to the following 3′22″ clip. HD version here.

It’s been over two years since the last time I was in Greece (thank the Greek government for invalidating valid passports and making me lose my trip and my ticket last summer), and so I feel a bit nostalgic about my home. Don’t think Greek islands and tourists, this is not where I am from. The mainland mountains are my home, very few tourists go there:

Of course, with just a 30 minute drive and can get you close to sea, in Preveza or Parga, shown below:

The music heard is the traditional music from the region. Bouzouki music is NOT traditional to mainland Greece, contrary to what many believe.

JBQ is a wonderful husband. I was really sick and in pain last night (because of my usual health problem), and he was so understanding, soft and sweet. He took me in his arms, kissed me, and made me feel safe in a way that I was able to sleep at 10 PM (I usually sleep at 2 or 3 AM).

The fact that I woke up at 1:30 AM though, is unrelated. It was a nice nap.